Wednesday Bolts – 10.10.12

John Hollinger of ESPN.com’s forecast: “And still, it may not matter if Perkins becomes a reasonable facsimile of the player the Thunder thought they were getting two years ago. Nonetheless, it’s a lingering problem, and one that may only worsen once Maynor goes. With all that said, it’s hard to see much empty in this glass. The Thunder have four All-Star-caliber talents in their early 20s, and if they can lock all four up for the long term it will take very little in the way of support to put them over the top. For that reason, I’d bet on a return engagement with the Heat this June … even if they have to a win a series or two on the road to get there.”

Nolan Clay of NewsOK on how one Thunder fan is suing a another over season tickets: “He said he got his share of the tickets last season but Strube has refused to turn over his share for this season. He said a check for the tickets was returned. Friesen told District Judge Bill Graves in his lawsuit that he had a verbal contract for the tickets. He is asking the judge to order Strube to turn over his tickets. The lawsuit also seeks “damages in excess of $10,000 for fraud, attorney fees, costs and other just and equitable relief the Court deems just and equitable.”

Kotaku on the uniform misspelling issue: “This comes from a roster uploaded to the 2K Share feature. A hex-editor managed to pull out all of the alternate uniforms, including the Christmas jerseys, that typically aren’t made available until they are worn in real life. PS3 users aren’t seeing this because their game can’t be cracked in this way. Kotaku has downloaded the roster and confirmed the misspelling.” So it sounds like the uniforms are legit.

Uni Watch’s Paul Lukas on OKC’s supposed new jersey: “The video game leaks of that alternate Thunder uniform are coming from multiple sources now, so I’m inclined to think they’re legit — except for one thing: As you can see above, they misspelled “Thunder.” And it’s not just in that one screen shot — it’s also misspelled here and probably here (tough to be sure). Weird. Typos notwithstanding, I don’t much care for this uni. I like old-school templates, but this one makes no sense for this team. No gold, no orange, nothing to connect it to the rest of the team’s identity system. Very odd choice, and a bad one.”

Darnell Mayberry: “I asked Brooks what he’s looking for out of mix and match lineups and he said several things. Among them are the individual play, how the guy is playing, the individual matchups, how a player is defending, how he is executing on offense and how a unit performs together.”

Henry Abbott of TrueHoop on offensive rebounding: “Worst by a country mile was the Celtics. Second was the Thunder. Third was the Heat. In other words a good chunk of the very best teams in the league, including both Finals competitors, simply don’t seem to place much of a priority on the offensive glass. Presumably those were the teams where opponents almost never got to start their attacks with big men struggling back down the floor after a failed attempt to grab an o-board. Presumably, it’s a hassle to miss out on those easy buckets.”

@ou_sas I understand and appreciate his point. But I also think it's bad business. If I'm a repair man, possibly even the best repair man, but I get passed up because I spent more time learning my craft than I did learning, it would be foolish to pass me up as an employee, no?

Hey there, Thanks for the heads up on the issue. I checked the article on which you're having issues in IE on my end, and it seems to be working fine. Could you clear your cache, as well as cookies and give it a go once more? If that doesn't do the trick, we'll be sure to take a deeper look in to this for you. Thanks TC, looking forward to your response. Cheers, Dhara

(I've tried this and let her know that it didn't make any difference.)

It's been like that for a while now, so I might fill out a support form if it continues. I've found they're pretty prompt about replying. Also, livefyre support is how I found out that jmatthicks (Spurs guy) seems to keep a pretty close eye on us. :)

Again changing the subject, but since I've got your "ear" . . . a livefyre question. When you click to see someone's profile, then read their comments . . . does it work for you when you click on See More Activity to see the older comments? Lately, when I click to see the older stuff, it just jumps back to the top. How am I supposed to keep tabs on everyone if I can't dig into what they've said? :)

@ThunderChick2010@FREE_COLE I have not, but it is on my to read list (it seems that list always grows and I never make any progress in shortening it, sadly). I'm familiar with the overall theme of it though.

Totally un-Thunder related, but your comment prompts me to ask . . . Have you ever read Between a Rock and a Hard Place (the Aron Ralston story)? Maybe not the best-written book, but a favorite and personally very meaningful story to me.

@ThunderChick2010@FREE_COLE Yes, yes they are. And I'm going to try and do the Whites, since they show up better against the background. But there's a couple of good pics in there for Serge that I can work with. Thanks for the suggestion!

Cook's kinda been put in between a rock and a hard place with his minutes, and we can only hope he pulls through. The avatar is pretty sweet, I agree.

Meanwhile, I'm hoping that Cook does something amazing and makes my avatar look good. :) I AM a Cook fan, but really I mostly like the open-ended connotation of ALL DAE, the orange color, and the T and L logo.

Btw, the new avatar is growing on me--especially since I see your reasoning behind the blacked out player. (Originally thought it was just showing up too dark(ly?) on my computer.) It's only been about a week since the Dr. Who pic completely phased out for me and I was just getting used to/attached to the sasquatch one. :)

@ou_sas@FREE_COLE@Tronchaser And that's why I hate quotation marks with punctuation so much. I remember writing a short story for one of my classes where one character (British) was written entirely with Oxford grammar and another (American) entirely in American grammar. Talk about going crazy.

@ou_sas@FREE_COLE@Tronchaser I personally hate the American/British differences in punctuation with quotation marks. British grammar does it right, using the punctuation in or outside the quotations based on the totality of the idea/phrase being cut. American grammar is lazy and just throws everything in, even if it would confuse the reader as to the correct pause or separation.

But like you said, there are plenty of strange things in the english language that aren't even rules, but that many people in authority abuse as if they were. For example, there is the idea that sentences cannot be ended in prepositions. The actual grammar of this is baseless - partly from the use of prepositions in Latin, and partly just the hot air of hundred year old scholars' preferences. But there are still teachers to this day that use that line in english classes. Who is to say tests like the on in issue aren't just using personal prerogative?

Notably, this kind of thing was an issue with old IQ tests as well. Many people were considered stupid or incompetent because IQ tests were biased toward the white and rich vocabulary and manner of speech. it's not hard to twist the english langauge to suit your purposes.

@Keith00@FREE_COLE@Tronchaser I suppose the other problem is that he might follow some weird American grammar rule and count things weird or off if spelled/used in the British sense. I'll be honest, I have no clue how to spell grey/gray. That's an easy and obvious one, but there are definitely plenty of other examples that could easily trip one up (e.g. Oxford commas).

@ThunderChick2010@FREE_COLE@Tronchaser I tend to have a grammatical advantage on most people in that I've taken Latin, where you learn to change the endings of nouns based on how they're used in sentences. That solves the who/whom question for me frequently. But it also helps me think "Hrm, is this a direct object or is it an adverb?"

@FREE_COLE@Tronchaser@ou_sas The criteria makes sense on some level and is at least fair across the board. I'm sure his company may miss out on potentially strong employees, but it would also weird me out to see a mistake on someone's resumé. I actually just went through two weeks of hiring last month and it was crazy how little time or attention applicants had put into their resumés.

There are certain things you just do as an applicant. If you have poor writing skills, you work with a professional on your resumé. You should plan your drive and show up early for an interview. If something serious and random truly stops you from being on time, you call ahead and let someone know. That's nothing about elitism, just professionalism.

The actual grammar test is what rankles me a bit. For one, American grammar is a crapshoot (and I went to school to write). Our punctuation doesn't consistently follow the logic of how a sentence is structured, and is often lazy or randomly stolen from other languages. I think everyone should be capable of expressing the professional ideas their use daily, but specialization does matter. But two, a grammar test does not test the basic competence or detail orientation of a candidate. It may just as well test their behavior under extreme pressure instead. And no one is perfect. I don't know the test given, but especially with American grammar, it can be pretty easy to misunderstand a properly punctuated question.

Point well-taken. If the job you're applying for deals with writing online repair manuals, then I think it's only good business to hire people with an excellent command of the written word. Everyone makes mistakes, but as the guy said, there's a difference between a typo and habitually incorrect/sloppy grammar.

I see what you're saying about arrogance. It's very easy to see the mistakes made by others and be blind or indifferent to those made by yourself. It's somewhat relative too. For example, I know I probably misuse who/whom, lay/laid/lain . . . can't figure out whether I want my punctuation inside or outside my quotation marks, and have an unconventional way of typing ellipses. Most people probably don't notice or care, but it doesn't make them any less incorrect.

@FREE_COLE@Tronchaser True, and in a normal situation, I'd agree. But in any interaction with a potential employer, I tend to be overly cautious about that sort of thing, and will double check spelling, etc., just to keep from making simple mistakes. The rules of grammar can be, admittedly, quite arcane at times. But to ask that someone pay enough attention to to/too/two or their/there is reasonable enough to me. What it is telling him is that either (a) the person is overly confident enough in their ability to get the job that they don't bother proofing once or (b) that they aren't willing to take the time to proof their own work in the normal course of business. From what I gather, he runs a computer hardware repair firm. Sloppiness or overconfidence could lead to frying an entire box if you're being haphazard about your work, so I can see where he's coming from.

And I agree, there is a strong whiff of arrogance coming from this guy. But his point of grammatical correctness is strangely compelling to me.

@Tronchaser@ou_sas Welp. My point was meant to be that elitism has to be checked when circumstances demand it. It is entirely possible to demand professionalism and education/skills relevant to the job. But a person who mistakenly uses their/there? That happens almost daily. This person, Wein, wants to suggest he's never made that mistake, which is bullshit/highly unlikely, or he expects of others measures that he isn't able to reach, which reeks of intellectual dishonesty.

Suggesting that the misuse of to/too/two as someone who is incompetent is so laughably arrogant. I've had to edit papers from math majors, some of the smartest people I've known, who couldn't write a philosophy paper to save their life but give them a proof to do and they'll go to town. It's not incompetence, it's specialization.

All said, I agree with the idea of showing that you care for the job, appearances, and other qualities of a professional, especially in presenting a resume to a potential employer. I appreciate the promotion of the english language.

@FREE_COLE I think the point is that grammar is just as important as dressing well - I know that in the legal world this is so. If your employees can't be bothered to pay attention to spelling differences (things that internet memes have been screaming at people for over a decade now), then it's the same as if you are told the dress code is khakis and a polo and you show up in cut-offs and a wife beater. The implicit message is that you don't care about appearances, and that can be a powerful negative message to present to potential clients/business partners.